There’s no point in going to a martial-arts epic if the craziness doesn’t pile up (at least a little bit), and I’m happy to report that in “True Legend,” there’s no shortage of wild stunts and zany ideas.
The actual plotline is a fairly serious revenge yarn, however. After an incoherent openi
ng battle, we settle into the basic situation: The great warrior Su Chan (Vincent Zhao) scores another triumph and returns home to assume a governorship and marry.
Alas, his adopted brother (Andy On) has always harbored resentment toward Su and craves power. After transforming himself by learning the Five Venom Fists, his skin color is a metallic gray, he has welded armor made from gold onto his body and his mood is nasty.
Following a showdown at a turbulent waterfall (great location), Su must withdraw to nurse his wounds, with his wife (Zhou Xun) and a mysterious healer (Asian superstar Michelle Yeoh) to help.
Part of the nuttiness of “True Legend” is the way it’s divided into separate acts. Much of the middle section is devoted to Su’s isolated battles against the God of Wushu, an entity most likely created in Su’s imagination. The god is embodied by the stylish Jay Chou, who played Kato in the recent “Green Hornet” picture.
Eventually there’s a satisfying showdown with the evil brother, after which the movie simply keeps going for another 40 minutes or so, as Su develops his martial-arts technique and finds himself in a kind of cage-match situation against European and American fighters.
Throw in a fighting surface perched above a pit full of hungry tigers and David Carradine (in one of his last roles) as a fight manager, and you see how the crazy adds up in this movie. It adds up so well you might not even notice how this final act is a very long anticlimax.
“True Legend” is directed by Yuen Woo-ping, who is revered in Asian cinema as a great fight choreographer (and outside Asian cinema, too: He worked on the “Matrix” movies and “Kill Bill”). Combining real stunts with wire work and computer effects, Yuen certainly whips up a fine frenzy here.
Vincent Zhao and Andy On make strong adversaries, even if we never quite know what fiendish form of alchemy is required to achieve the state of Five Venom Fists. It has something to do with incorporating snake poison into one’s body, the better to release toxins that can turn the opponent a sickly leaden color.
If you run across Five Venom Fists, go the other direction. But if you like your kung fu served with a twist, seek out “True Legend.”
“True Legend”
Director Yuen Woo-ping’s satisfyingly crazy martial-arts epic, in which a master warrior (Vincent Zhao) fends off the threat of his adoptive brother (Andy On), as well as a few supernatural opponents. The final section is a 40-minute anticlimax, but as it’s just as over-the-top as everything else here, kung fu fans probably won’t care. In Mandarin, with English subtitles.
Rated: R for violence
Showing: Varsity
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